Zombie Fish

Chapter 11: Zombie Fish

Swimming in the water, Junk was not about to give up on April. He had only just met her, she was pregnant. He had befriended her quite a bit. She was too important for him to lose now.

The Minotaur was supposed to be breeding with her a lot and to be making a bunch of monstrous children to boost the currently non-existent legion of The Witch Queen. They had to start somewhere, and this somewhere was here and now with April. However, everything was ripped out of their hands as the underwater creature swiftly the elvish ranger away from them. The tentacle-like tail of the creature kept pulling her deeper and deeper into the warm and electrified pool of water of the hot spring. Junk did his best to swim, but swimming radically wasn't his forte. He knew how to swim. But it wasn't exactly what he did best. He definitely had lots of trouble keeping up with a fish. Underwater, Junk had many issues identifying the beast, not that it was the most important thing right now. It was a bit too dark where the creature went. The hot spring was connected to a river that went through Silverstream and then continued in the valley. The underwater creature had already left the hot spring and took the river. Apparently planning on escaping with the elvish ranger, sooner rather than later. The more he tried to keep up the river monster, the more Junk realized he was no match for something like this. It was too fast for him. The last thing he saw from April was her sweet and beautiful face. She was smiling and looking at Junk as she was being pulled deeper and further away in the river. His window was closing. It was quickly becoming more and more impossible for him to get her back. He already felt as if he had failed her. Soon, the Minotaur would no longer be able to see her. Taking away by the underwater monster.

Damn. What am I supposed to do now? It got away from her. I failed to save her. She was here with us one second, and I allowed her to be taken. What am I doing? Junk asked himself as he finally saw the last of April, being taken away by the creature, captured and pulled on by its long tentacle-like tail. At this point, Junk had just begun to realize that he didn't have any air in a drastically long time. More than two minutes straight, in fact. He felt himself running out of oxygen in his lungs. He felt himself losing all of his strength. He couldn't swim anymore. He stopped swimming forward in the water not too long after April finally disappeared from his eyesight underneath the water. The Minotaur was no longer moving. He was more or less motionless in the river. His body was floating in the pure darkness. It was still night outside. The river was so dark he couldn't see anything now. Not interested in giving up on life anytime soon, he tried his best to come back to the surface before it was going to be too late and that he couldn't hold his breath anymore. Finally, up at the surface, Junk received the oxygen he had come to crave so much during the past two minutes. He floated at the surface, pondering about the fact that he lost her. He hated himself so much for it. How can someone as remarkable and adorable as April can be suddenly taken away from them like that?

April didn't do anything to deserve that outside of tagging along with a dark mistress such as September and an ex-prisoner such as Junk. To him, she was the one among the three who deserved the least to be kidnapped like this. The water of the river was just as electrified as the hot spring was, rendering Junk to remain constantly and nearly fully paralyzed as he continued to swim at the surface of the water. He desperately tried reaching the side of the river, so he could finally get the hell out of this electrified water, but his muscles felt too weak and sick to move much. It was already a miracle that he had made it to the surface of the water and could get some air to breathe. The situation was nearly just as dire for him as it was for April. Well, no, it was way worse for April. She was probably getting eaten alive by that point, as tragic and unfortunate as it sounded. She didn't deserve this, Junk kept telling himself, second after second…

***

Down the river, April still hadn't been eaten. Although, nearly just as worst was happening to her. With the underwater creature still pulling on her with his tail and taken her further and further away from the two other members of her new team, she truly felt as if she was going to suffocate underneath the water. Still no oxygen. And the massive bursts of blue electricity were still present. Even that far from the hot spring, the river was still dangerously electrified and sparking with bolts of lightning. As she was soon about to close her eyes under the water and succumb to the reality of not being able to breathe, she randomly realized something. It wasn't only the hot spring and the river that was electrified. It wasn't only because of Lord Monsoon that this phenomenon had occurred. The underwater beast which had been dragging her down the river was electrified as well. Its body was permanently sparking and buzzing with the same blue electricity.

She tried turning her head around a bit to look at it better. She looked up. Then, all of a sudden, the monster stopped swimming forward, turned its head, feeling observed and stared at April. The creature was an electric eel. A giant eel with two black holes as eyes and massively large and sharp, transparent teeth that she could fully see through. The eel was decaying before her eyes. It wasn't healthy. It was dead. No, it was undead. In addition to squeezing her waist and hurting her underwater with its tail, it was evident to her that the next logical step would be to getting eaten alive by this zombie fish. At this point, the elvish ranger was fully prepared for it to be the case. Not that she was willing to die right now or anytime. It wasn't part of the plan, but she was already beginning to accept the fact that she couldn't do anything about it now. She tried fighting. Of course. She never ceased fighting and battling the monster underwater, trying to escape the grasp of its tentacle-like tail, but she was at the end of it all. She was now at the end of the battle, which she was about to lose. She slowly lowered her head as her strengths were leaving her.

The head of the undead river creature moved toward her. It was soon about to open its mouth. To open it wider than ever. Showing even more teeth than before. Legions of them. Armies upon armies of dangerous and sharp teeth that April was just about to be entering in contact. Although at this moment, as April still had one of her eyes opened, still staring at the vile creature, something unpredictable happened. The eel didn't open its mouth to bite her with its teeth and devour her, it did so to let its unusual tongue out of its mouth. The tongue was completely transparent. See-through. The tip of the tongue, in other words, the head of it, was curved and formed in the shape of a snake's penis. Phallic, but in an out worldly and strange way. Fat. Wide. Slimy. Disgusting. Then, the rest of its tongue, the body of it was long and more streamlined. More elongated. Still completely clear as well. April saw it. She didn't know how to react. Instead of getting her head chewed off by the creature, the head of its tongue suddenly tried touching and rubbed against her face, but she avoided it at the last second. April took a step back. There was a strong attempt by the river to seducer her underwater, but this wasn't going to work because April was quite far from being interested.

The only two things April could think about right now were Junk, and how much she fell for him already, as well as getting out of here alive.

***

"Looks like I'm going to have to take care of this myself," September said as she was still waiting right outside the hot spring establishment. Having recently got out of it. Sensing that her Minotaur wasn't able to get the job done himself, she intervened. Still carrying her wooden and nature-based scepter in the palm of her right, she closed her eyes, waited for a bit, breathed, raised her left hand in the air right in front of her face and moved her index finger up. She was channelling her mana. Her powerful milk mana and worked on casting a spell. Then, a few seconds later, her wooden scepter began glowing of a beautiful ruby red light before morphing into a different object: A witch's broom. Her witch's broom. It was of the same color as her scepter, once the red glowing light had vanished. It was virtually the same object, aesthetically speaking, as her scepter, but it was a broom.

"I haven't ridden you in a while. It's about time we correct this, you and me," she said just before placing it between her legs and sitting on it. She smirked. She took five seconds to rub it a bit in the space between her legs. Getting herself wet a bit. She smirked again. A wider smile this time. Then, it was the moment to get to work. A burst of energy, ruby red light, exploded at the end of the broom in her back and she was suddenly projected into the air. Flying and gliding, hundreds and hundreds of feet in the air. Flying at the speed of light.

Elsewhere, as Junk was still swimming into the river, still desperately attempting to catch up with the giant electric eel and April, he randomly saw something fly remarkably fast above his head in the sky. He didn't know it. He wasn't certain of it, but it was her. He only saw a sparkling fireball gliding in the sky.

What was that? The beast thought to himself.

"Could it be?" he said out loud, finally stopping to swim in the water. Remaining, floating at the surface.

Down the river, The Witch Queen abruptly stopped in the middle of the sky, right above the specific area in the water where the giant eel had stopped to keep April as its prisoner. Right as she was about to run out of oxygen underwater. She stopped right above her after successfully sensing her here and remained more or less motionless in the air, seductively sitting on her broom. With her long and thick legs smoothly crossed together.

"There she is," she said to herself. At this moment, before it was too late, it was time for her to cast another spell. A real spell this time and not only some physical transformation of an item. She closed her eyes again. Concentrated one more time. She raised both of her hands right in front of her dark mistress's face until they eventually glowed of the same ruby red color as her scepter did earlier. "Let's see how well you are doing without any water," September said as she completed the conjuration of the spell and magically began to lower the level of the water in the river down below. "Autumn's Harvest: Ground Heat!" she loudly called out the name of her spell. The Witch Queen was able to make the ground below the water of the river a lot warmer, which caused the water to evaporate super quickly. In the span of only a few seconds, the level of the river was so low that it was no longer enough for the zombie fish to behaving normally. Not that the undead creature was required to breathe. It was already dead. No. But it could no longer move normally. It could no longer swim. Casting this spell, playing with the water also caused it to no longer be electrified.

By the time the level of the water was lowered, it was revealed that the eel had never been able to touch April.

She escaped him and he never touched her.

April saw September, hovering above her in the sky. They made eye contact.

"It took you long enough!" April yelled out to her Witch Queen.